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Academic obviousness

I recently returned from the Academy of Management Meetings in Hawaii (now there’s a sight for you – 7,000 academics running wild on Waikiki beach…). I continue to be struck by the way in which academics are not researching questions that managers are worried about, and by the way in which the answers do not appeal to managers in practice. Or worse, by the way in which academic research discovers the obvious. Here’s one from a paper I’ve just reviewed – seems that competition increasingly has to do with innovation, not just efficiency. Wow. Let me write that one down.So what should academics be researching? All comments taken very seriously!